Multiverse opens Edinburgh AI hub with 200 jobs planned

TL;DR:

  • Multiverse, the AI workforce platform led by Euan Blair, is opening a technology hub in Edinburgh focused on agentic products.
  • It has hired former Amazon executive Colin Mackenzie as its first VP of AI Engineering to lead the hub.
  • The company plans 200 jobs across Edinburgh and its London HQ following a £55m funding round.

Multiverse, the AI-powered workforce development platform fronted by Euan Blair, is opening a technology hub in Edinburgh to develop agentic AI products. The company has appointed former Amazon executive Colin Mackenzie — who built the generative AI platform behind Amazon’s AI advertising — as its first VP of AI Engineering to lead it. Multiverse plans to create 200 jobs over the next year across the Edinburgh office and its London headquarters.

Bridging AI capability and the workforce

The expansion follows a £55m ($70m) raise last month led by Schroders Capital, with backing from existing investors including General Catalyst, Lightspeed and Index Ventures, aimed at driving European growth. Blair frames the company as the missing “layer” between firms that need AI and the AI providers themselves: “Getting outcomes from AI and unlocking productivity is not just a technology problem. It is a people problem.”

The Edinburgh choice is a bet on Scottish engineering talent at a moment when Scotland trails on AI adoption — making an investment outside the usual London cluster a notable signal. “AI is changing how people work faster than they can retrain for it,” Mackenzie said, warning that without equitable access to AI skills “a lot of people get displaced and left behind”. The skills-and-adoption gap Multiverse targets is the same one running through the week’s pilot-purgatory findings: capability is advancing faster than workforces can absorb it.

Looking forward

Multiverse sits at the intersection of two UK priorities — AI skills and regional growth — that the government is also chasing through bootcamps and doctoral funding. A workforce platform scaling into Edinburgh rather than concentrating in London is the kind of distributed investment ministers want more of. The test is delivery: turning 200 planned roles and agentic-product ambitions into measurable productivity for the employers Multiverse serves.

Share this article